The group Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) is trying to convince the District of Sechelt and the Sunshine Coast Community Forest (SCCF) to sign on to a memorandum of understanding that would put one of the forest’s planned harvest blocks on hold.
The window for contractors to bid on road building and timber cutting on a block in Halfmoon Bay and two in the Wilson Creek area, EW23 and EW28, known by some as the Chanterelle Forest, was due to close Nov. 24.
ELF has long opposed logging in EW28, and several of its supporters were in the public gallery Nov. 15, when SCCF chair Glen Bonderud delivered his quarterly update for Sechelt council.
As well as the usual facts and figures, Bonderud mentioned the impact controversy has on the SCCF’s volunteer board.
“We do get a fair amount of harassment… That makes people very upset. I don’t know what we can do about it,” Bonderud said, but added that a recent Roberts Creek Community Association meeting had a more positive tone.
“We had a good, respectful discussion. A lot of questions about process, lots of questions about how we work with the Band, the various approval processes we go through. I think we helped people’s confidence that we’re actually doing reasonable due diligence.”
Mayor Bruce Milne noted that his office had received around 100 emails about the logging, and he acknowledged that there’s room to improve how SCCF and the District of Sechelt engage with the public on the work of the Community Forest.
“Members of this council have often thought there’s room for more community in the Community Forest, but we also have a lot of confidence in the work that the [SCCF] board is doing and the Community Forest has done,” he said.
During the public Q&A session at the end of the meeting, several people questioned whether the SCCF or Sechelt council had properly consulted with the shíshálh Nation given that some shíshálh members have written their chief and council asking for the logging to be stopped.
Shíshálh Nation approval was required before provincial permits for the harvesting were issued.
“This council has been very clear, from the inaugural address on, that we will take guidance from and work toward reconciliation with the shíshálh,” Milne said. “If the chief and council, who we see as the representatives, have a view on that logging, you won’t find us in opposition.”
ELF’s proposed MOU includes a clause saying “SCCF will remove cutblock EW28 (aka ‘Chanterelle Forest’) from its schedule for 12 months allowing time for the new provincial government to consider an order-in-council to expand the Mt. Elphinstone Provincial Park,” as well as one committing that ELF “will not oppose other SCCF cutblocks in the Wilson Creek watershed that do not infringe upon the [proposed] Mt. Elphinstone Park expansion boundaries, or other cutblocks across its tenure.”
Neither the District of Sechelt nor SCCF has publicly responded to the MOU idea.
